"Aren't you gonna say hi?" he asked.
She swung her head sideways. "Hi." She walked away, but his hand on her wrist stopped her in her tracks. "Don't touch me."
Chewy let go of her. "You look good, Kimber. It's been a long time. How've you been?"
Every nerve in her body was on edge; she knew his smooth voice and calm demeanor could turn deadly in a heartbeat. "I've been good." Get away from me, you fucking slime ball. I have nothing to say to you. She noticed that he'd aged since she last saw him, and his hairline had recessed quite a bit. That brought her an enormous amount of satisfaction; Chewy had always been so obsessed with losing his hair. Karma's a bitch, asshole.
"You live in Denver now?"
She shook her head. "I have to go."
"Why? You got an old man?"
"Bye." She spotted Hawk and caught his eye, then waved him over. He was there in a few seconds, and she finally relaxed.
"What's up?" he asked.
"I just wanted to show you this 1932 Harley. Bruno, the guy who brought his German vintage in last week, wants me to custom it along these lines." She felt Chewy's glare burning through her.
"Fuck, it looks awesome. Cara and I were admiring this baby earlier. You and I have the same taste when it comes to bikes."
"As the saying goes, ‘Great minds think alike.' I so love this motorcycle. If I had the money, I'd collect these vintage babies."
"Is he your old man?" Chewy's voice, laced with irritation, came from behind her.
Why the fuck is he still here?
Before she could answer him, Hawk turned around and, with a hard glint she'd never seen in his eyes before, said, "Who the fuck are you?"
When she saw the vein in Chewy's temple throb, she knew he was on the verge of exploding. Watching Hawk, she saw his gaze harden further when he spotted the Demon Riders patch on Chewy's cut. "You know this fucker?" he asked her.
"A long time ago."
"She was my old lady," Chewy hissed.
From the way Hawk's eyes widened, she knew the comment took him by surprise. He'd definitely have a lot of questions for her later, but for the time being, his stance and taut face indicated he was on the defensive.
"You interested in talking with this asshole?" Hawk said.
"No."
"You heard her. Get the fuck away. Now."
Chewy clenched his fist, and her stomach dropped. This is bad. Very bad.
"What if I don't?" Chewy took a step closer to her.
"Then I'll stomp your fuckin' ass."
Their voices had escalated, and several people moved away from the trio as the tension in the air heightened. Kimber was positive a fight was ready to break out, but then Banger, Axe, Chas, Rags, Wheelie, and Rock came over, and relief flooded through her. Chewy was stupid as hell, but he wasn't so stupid to start something with seven Insurgents surrounding him.
"You got trouble with this fucking Demon Rider?" Banger asked.
"Nothing I can't handle," Hawk replied.
"What's the problem, asshole?" Chas said to Chewy.
"He's bothering Kimber, and I told him to get the fuck outta here." Hawk clenched his fists. "Only problem is he's still fucking here."
By the way Chewy's eyes darted around the different members' faces, Kimber knew he was assessing the situation and realizing it was futile to start anything without backup. Stepping back, he disengaged from the group. As he walked away, he said, "This shit isn't over."
"Bring it on, fucker!" Rags's face was red and his nostrils flared.
"Fucking Demon Riders" was muttered by several of the Insurgents.
Kimber turned to Hawk. "Sorry about that. I was hoping not to involve your club."
"No worries. You were a Demon Riders' old lady? You still got shit with the club?"
"Don't worry about it. I haven't had any contact with my ex since I ran away from him a few years ago. I was never that involved with the club. They weren't the nicest to the old ladies. They adhered to the notion that women were beneath second-class citizens."
"You sure you're not with them? Because I don't like the fact you never told Hawk ‘bout your connection with them," Banger said, his blue eyes flashing.
"I was never with them, as I said. I left, and it never occurred to me to tell Hawk about my broken relationship. I wasn't trying to hide anything."
Banger grunted and Hawk cleared his throat. "Kimber's solid, but we gotta be on alert now. I have a feeling that fucker isn't too happy about what happened. I figure he's gonna want to start some shit."
"Is he with the local chapter?" Axe asked.
"Nah. His patch said ‘Iowa.'" Hawk crossed his arms across his chest.
Banger exhaled loudly. "I bet those fuckers Dustin and Shack are here. I want them to start something so I can kick their fuckin' asses."
"Yeah. Ever since those bastards joined up with the Demon Riders, I've wanted to kick their asses too. I keep saying we shoulda wasted them when we had them." Chas ran his hand through his hair.
Hawk glared. "We got a citizen here, Chas."
An awkward silence fell over them and Kimber knew it was her time to leave. "I'm going back to the booth to hang with Throttle. He said he wanted to see the bikes, so I'll come back later with him."
Banger nodded, his blue eyes still cold.
"I'll make sure you get back okay," Rags said.
"We better find our women and keep them close. The game has fuckin' changed," Axe said, and all the members nodded in agreement.
As Kimber neared the Insurgents' booth, dread climbed up her spine, and she couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right. She chided herself that she was just unnerved because she'd seen Chewy again and he'd stirred up all the old, negative feelings.
When she spotted Throttle talking to a couple guys at the kiosk, an instant wave of relief washed away the dread. She caught his eye and he threw her the sexiest panty-melting smile ever. Her stomach fluttered and she waved at him, returning his smile.
Then a gunshot rang out and all hell broke loose.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Screams broke out. The crowd scattered like blowing leaves in a wind storm, rushing the exits, their faces masks of panic and fear. Kimber watched as Throttle and his other brothers whipped around and jumped over the table, running at full speed toward the area behind the booths. She shoved people out of her way as she stood off to the corner and saw more than fifty men fighting, the glint of the overhead lighting bouncing off their chains, industrial flashlights, and knives. Blood was everywhere, and all she could see was a blur of black leather and denim tangled together. The men were shouting and swearing, their jaws clenched, fists flying, stares fevered and intense. From what she could see, it appeared to be a battle between the Insurgents and the Demon Riders, and several men were on the ground, bleeding and writhing in pain.
Then she saw Tiny-a member of the Demon Riders-pull out a gun and aim it at Banger. As his finger moved to pull the trigger, a shot rang out and Tiny fell facedown on the ground. A strained silence hovered over the fighters for a few seconds, but then the fight started up again.
Sirens wailed outside and the men pulled away fleeing, leaving their wounded on the ground in pools of blood. People who had dove under tables slowly crawled out as a swarm of police officers flooded the event center. Kimber ran to the stairwell where palm and footprints painted the floor and bannisters. She rushed down the stairs and when she reached the first landing, someone grabbed her from behind. She screamed and kicked, but he held her firmly. Twisting around, she stared into Chewy's menacing face.
"Leave me the fuck alone!" She tried to pull away from his grip.
"You owe me, bitch! Nobody takes off on me the way you did. You were my fuckin' ol' lady. Disrespect gets fuckin' punished." He punched the side of her face. "And being an Insurgents whore makes you a dead bitch after I have some fun with you."
"Please, Chewy. Let me go. You don't want to do this. We used to love each other, remember?"
"You took care of that, didn't you? Fuckin' slut." He delivered a blow to her stomach, knocking the wind out of her.
The metal door banged open a flight above them, and Chewy yanked her behind him and took her out of the building. Stumbling as she tried to keep up with him, her eye already swelling, she tried to figure out how to get away from him. Chaos was everywhere around them, and she and Chewy were lost within it.